IE3 Book Report

Book Report

Author: Harry Mazer
Book Title: When The Phone Rang
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Place: New York, USA
Date: 1985
No. of pages: 181 pages


Plot Summary: One day, the phone rang a calm afternoon in the house of Billy and changed his life forever. Billy was a teenager who lives with his parents and a younger sister, Lori in a new city. One afternoon, Billy and Lori were cleaning their house, because they were waiting for their parents who were on a business trip. Suddenly the phone rang. It was from the airport and a woman told Billy that an airplane which his parents had got on crashed into the Caribbean and that their parents were dead. At first, Billy thought it was a joke and hung up the phone. However, when he saw the news on TV, he didn’t say anything. Later they receive a phone call from their uncles and his older brother, Kevin who was in a college studying to be a doctor. The next day Kevin came to visit them and a few days later their uncles and grandmother came too. After a few days the family members needed to go back to their homes, and they were going to take Billy and Lori with them. However, they didn’t want to, because they didn’t want to part with their house which has their parent’s memory and also wanted Kevin to stay with them. Therefore, Kevin stayed with his brothers and got a job and went to the college in the city while his siblings go to school. Billy tried to fix a room which was in the top of his house, because it was something he was doing with his father to rent the room. However, it was much harder than expected for them. They had problems. For example, Kevin sold the car because of the shortage of money while Billy didn’t want to separate from the car. Also Lori had a friend, Marianne who smoke and stole things from the stores and Marianne teached it to Lori. She did those bad things because she felt lonely and her brothers didn’t notice. Finally Lori went to visit her grandmother and stayed away from the bad friend. Kevin continued working while going to college. Billy found a part time job in an arcade. Billy also finished fixing the room and rented it. The three siblings continue their life missing their parents.


Literary Terms:
1. Setting
The time is at the present. Before move, the location was Delmar, but changed to New York after move.

2. Point of view
The story is told from omniscient.

3. Conflict
Man versus himself. Because young siblings lost their parents unexpectedly, they had to struggle against their own loneliness and sorrow.

4. Climax
In the first week of summer vacation, the siblings were down by the river. They felt all finished. They were not angry anymore, not feeling sorry for themselves, not blaming parents not being there. Finally Billy took off Dad’s hat and spun it out over the river.

5. Symbol
A car called Mercedes and Dad’s hat. For Billy, it was a parent’s memory. Lori’s braid and lipstick shows that she is becoming interest in fashion by Maryanne’s influence.

6. Irony
Although many relatives and neighbors were about to take advantage of the death of parents, they couldn’t because the siblings decided to live together so that they didn’t have to move anymore.

7. Theme
Help each other, and people can get over difficulty. No matter how much one cry or grieve, there are things which can’t be resolved. In this story, young children lost their parents and of course this is so tragic. However, they helped each other and tried to overcome difficulties.


Evaluation:
Before reading this book, I thought it may mystery story yet it wasn’t. I was made to think about life deeply. Including me, people aren’t usually living thinking what if parents die tomorrow. However, we have no idea what will happen in the future. Things are always sudden. Therefore we have to do what we can as much as possible. I really recommend this book especially for teenagers. In the story, the siblings continued life with effort despite of the death of the most important family member. In reality, there are many children who lost their parents or parents who lost their children by accidents. Although their sorrow would never be forgotten, they can learn a lot from it by helping each other.